Hurricane Ida in Louisiana: the first images of the damage – The HuffPost

USA TODAY USPW via Reuters

UNITED STATES – Hurricane Ida continued its threatening course in Louisiana overnight from Sunday to Monday, sixteen years after the devastation of Katrina of which it has the power, causing its first damage.

Classified in category 4 on arrival on the coast of Louisiana, Ida went to category 3 in the early evening, the same category as Katrina who had devastated this southern state in the United States in 2005.

As of Sunday evening, the city of New Orleans was completely without electricity, and “the only electricity in the city comes from the generators,” according to the Entergy company. Moments before this announcement, more than a million homes were without electricity across Louisiana, announced the specialized site poweroutage.us.

“Ida is a dangerous category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale (out of 5). Rapid weakening is expected over the next day, but Ida is expected to remain a hurricane until late tonight, ”the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest bulletin.

The NHC warned of the “deadly risk” created by the hurricane and urged residents of affected areas to “take all necessary measures to protect their lives and property”.

At 7 p.m. local time, Ida was still making progress with winds of 195 km / h, slightly less violent than when it made landfall shortly before noon at Port Fourchon, some 160 km south of New Orleans.

The first material damage and flooding were observed, as can be seen in the pictures below.

“It is a potentially fatal cyclone”, underlined the president Joe biden, who went to the headquarters of the US Crisis Management Agency (FEMA) on Sunday and urged the population to take the threat seriously.

In New Orleans, gusts of wind rushed through deserted streets, all stores, gas stations and houses were barricaded, the French quarter having ended up emptying, AFP found on the spot.

Power cuts

“Once the hurricane has passed, you must prepare to stay in the shelter where you are for at least 72 hours,” State Governor John Bel Edwards said at a conference. hurry.

On CNN, the governor estimated that the costly dike system put in place after the devastation of Katrina in 2005 should “hold up”.

The ocean level was more than a meter and a half above its usual high average in several places, according to the NHC.

In a neighborhood in the east of the city, a few hours before Ida’s arrival, residents were finishing their preparations. Charles Fields thus stored his garden furniture inside his house. “I’m not sure I’m ready but we’ll have to face it well,” he said.

“We’ll see how it holds,” said this resident who had found himself with more than three meters of water in his living room during the passage of Katrina.

130 km away, in the capital Baton Rouge, a curfew has been announced for all of the city west of the Mississippi River, from dusk until dawn. , Monday.

“Don’t go out”

Ida “will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit Louisiana since at least the 1850s,” John Bel Edwards warned on Saturday.

“Do not go out”, therefore hammered all weekend the American meteorological services, which recommend to the inhabitants to take refuge in a room without windows of their residence and to be sealed there.

The memory of Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005, exactly 16 years ago, is still painful in Louisiana: more than 1,800 people had perished and bad weather had caused tens of billions of dollars in damage.

“I know it is very painful to think that a new big storm like Hurricane Ida could make landfall on this anniversary date,” said John Bel Edwards. “But we are not the same state as 16 years ago, we have a hurricane risk reduction system.”

The White House announced on Sunday that federal agencies have deployed more than 2,000 emergency response specialists, including search teams, as well as supplies of water, food and electric generators.

Local authorities, the Red Cross and other organizations plan to open “dozens of shelters for at least 16,000 people,” the White House added on Sunday.

Hurricane Ida and Delta variant

As the surface of the oceans warms, hurricanes become more powerful, scientists say. In particular, they pose an increasingly significant risk to coastal communities that are victims of wave-submersion phenomena amplified by rising sea levels.

And the hurricane hits a region already on the health alert: the Delta variant hit the hardest Louisiana, little vaccinated, bringing its hospital system to its knees, with nearly 2,700 hospitalized patients and as many daily deaths as peak of the pandemic.

The storm therefore comes at “a very difficult time”, underlined the governor, presenting “extreme difficulties for us, with the hospitals so full of Covid patients”.

“Make sure you wear a mask and try to keep your distance,” Joe Biden, who declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, reminded residents forced to go to shelters.

See also on The HuffPost: Hurricane Ida Approaches Louisiana, Here’s How Locals Are Preparing